Top 63?

David Vogin

This morning, after head judge Gis Hoogendijk's last call, Laurent Jarniak from France did not show up.

Of course, this happens sometimes but this time was special. Laurent stayed with a friend of his, in Dunkerque, more than 120 km away from Antwerpen... Unforgivably, his driver was not fast enough and he arrived ten minutes late, at the fourth pick of the first booster.

Since he couldn't enter in the middle of the draft, he decided not to play at all, to avoid a 0-3 record to start the day.

Could he have been replaced ? This is an important matter. Could Yann Hamon, 65th finisher of day 1, have replaced him, if he would have been on the site?

The answer is NO, for two reasons. First, a technical reason: the cut had been made for the top 64 players, the draft pods had been prepared and it would have been a mess to drop and replace Laurent after this. Also, the fact that a player could be influenced and pushed not to show up in case he could be replaced is decisive. This could trigger lots of bribery matters.

Anyway, the next time you qualify for day two, please invest in a hotel room, this will spare you a disillusion.